franchise-star-trek-tng-technical-manual1

11.2 PHASER OPERATIONS11.2 PHASER OPERATIONSIn their primary defensive application, the ship's phaserarrays land single or multiple beams upon a target in anattempt to damage the target structure, sometimes to completedestruction. As with other Starfleet-developed hardware,the Type X phaser is highly adaptable to a variety ofsituations, from active low-energy scans to high-velocity shipto-shipcombat operations.The exact performance of most phaser firings is determinedby an extensive set of practical and theoretical scenariosstored within the main computers. Artificial intelligenceroutines shape the power levels and discharge behaviors ofthe phaser arrays automatically, once specific commands aregiven by responsible officers to act against designated targets.Low-energy operations provide a valuable direct methodof transferring ship's energy for a variety of controlled applications,such as active sensor scanning. In high-energy weaponfirings, several interrelated computer systems work to placethe beam on the target, all within a few milliseconds. Longandshort-range sensor scans provide target information tothe Threat assessment/tracking/targeting system (TA/T/TS),which drives the phaser arrays with the best target coverage.Multiple targets are prioritized and acted upon in order. Themaximum effective tactical range of ship's phasers is 300,000kilometers.Targets protected by defensive EM shields and surfaceabsorptive-ablative coatings may still be dealt with, but with acommensurate increase in power to defeat the shields.Phasers may be fired one-way through the ship's own shieldsdue to EM polarization, with a small acceptable drag forcepenalty at the inner shield interface.Threat vessels will be encountered with a wide variety ofshields that act upon phaser emissions to reduce their effectiveness;the type most often confronted spreads the beamcross section, redirecting the energy around the shields andback into space. Higher power levels will usually overburdenthe shields and allow the phaser to hit the target directly,although more sophisticated adversaries possess highlyresistant shield generators. It has been the experience ofsome starship tactical officers that rapid-firing volleys at differentparts of a shield bubble can weaken it. The phaser arrayson a Galaxy class ship are located to achieve maximum beamdwell time on a target.continue changing attitude so as to deny the beams any siteson which to inflict concentrated energies.In Cruise Mode, all phaser arrays receive their primarypower from the warp reaction chamber, with supplementaryfusion power from the impulse engine systems. Rechargetimes are kept to